Challenges encountering the participation of women in senior administrative status at higher education

In recent decades, the number of women participating in higher education has dramatically increased. Women have been participating mainly as the students, faculty members, and support staff for higher educational institutions. Research shows that, the number of women is not fairly proportioned in the top administrative positions. In addition, women who have aspiration for top administrativepositions encounter numerous challenges. On the other hand, the potentiality of this type of human resource is staying futile in High-rankingpositions of higher education. Over and above, the paper explores the probable external and internal factors by reviewing relevant studies, which can facilitate women?s career development. By considering the factors, the university developers and managers can equip to make strategic decisions in order to promote participation of women in senior administrative positions

The Impact of Animation Program on Arabic Learning Vocabulary Recall Among Primary School Pupels: A Case Study at Al-Amin Islamic Primary School, Gombak

In Al Amin Gombak Islamic Primary School, vocabulary recall and acquisition of verbal skills is a major concern in Arabic Language Learning. Classical teaching techniques and learning materials has become ineffective in ensuring the acquisition of those skills. Although each class is equipped with a HD television that can be connected to a laptop via a USB cable, animation programs have yet to be used by the teachers in teaching Arabic Language

Application of virtual learning environment in the teaching of engineering drawing to enhance students' mental rotation skills

Virtual learning environment seems to transform education process in a more flexible way as compared to other modes of learning and have great potential in ensuring successful learning. This study investigates the effectiveness of virtual learning environment in teaching engineering drawing in order to enhance mental rotation skills. A quasi- experimental design study was used involving engineering students in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. The intervention group in this study was exposed to virtual learning environment courseware. Students in this study were given a pre-test before the intervention and a post-test prior to the intervention. The result of this research indicates that there are significant improvements in the mental rotation skills of the students who were being exposed to the virtual learning environment. This study also investigates the gender differences in visualization skills. Thus, this study shows that using courseware in the teaching of engineering drawing can act as a catalyst in enhancing productivity and quality of engineering drawing. As a result, students are capable of enhancing their visualization skills which is vital in engineering drawing

The impact of animation program on Arabic learning vocabulary recall among primary school pupels: a case study at a selected Islamic Primary School, Gombak

An effective way of learning language vocabulary requires various types of teaching and strategies . The animated cartoon or films can accelerate enjoyment and interest for student to expand their Arabic vocabulary recall. This research aimed to investigate the effectiveness of the usage of animation program in Arabic language learning on vocabulary recall and basic verbal skills among the first year pupels in a selected Islamic Primary School in the district of Gombak, Selangor. To achieve the objectives of the study, the researchers adopted the experimental approach via control and experimental groups. Two classes of similar academic level were selected comprising 40 students, with 20 students in each class. In the control group, picture animations were used, while the control group involved normal and traditional teaching strategies. The study was carried out during the second term of the school year 2016. The vocabulary recall tests consisted of twenty (20) words whilst the verbal skills test consisted of six (6) sentences. Descriptive analyses was done on the data. The results showed that level of effectiveness of the usage of animation program in achieving the objectives of this study. In the light of those findings, the study urged the usage of animation programs in Arabic language learning for primary school students to enhance the learning of vocabulary and basic verbal skills, not as an alternative but as an additional technique. It was also suggested that further researches be done on how to maximise the usage of animation programs in Arabic Language Learning in primary school and what kind of animation programs would be most effective in Arabic language learning amongst primary school students

Identifying Pertinent Elements of Critical Thinking and Mathematical Thinking Used in Civil Engineering Practice in Relation to Engineering Education

Engaging critical thinking and mathematical thinking in solving engineering problems is a way of approaching the engineering criteria of Engineering Accreditation Council, Board of Engineers Malaysia. Thus, it is timely and crucial to inculcate the critical thinking and mathematical thinking into the current engineering education. Unfortunately, information about these two modes of thinking in real-world engineering practice is found lacking in the literature. Therefore, this paper focuses on explaining an analytic process in identifying pertinent elements of critical thinking and mathematical thinking used in real-world civil engineering practice. The analytic process, namely open coding is a part of coding process in modified grounded theory analysis. Data consist of semi-structured interviews with eight practicing civil engineers from two different consultancy firms. A total of fifty three pertinent elements emerged during the analytic process. The selection of these pertinent elements was based on the predominant pattern and frequency of the informants and open codes. The pertinent elements were eventually integrated to develop a substantive theory. The substantive theory provides useful information for the engineering education

How to Develop Character Education of Madrassa Students in Indonesia

In the last decades, the teachers criticized for failing to integrate the knowledge in the behavior of virtue. Therefore the character education is always considered in every design education, including in madrassas. The character education is the deliberate attempt to influence the behavior of students through customizing repeatedly. making it easy to do virtue and avoid crime. The research has focused on the approach to character education at madrassa. The qualitative method by interviewing, observation, and focus groups have been used in this study.A total of 16 teachers at four madrassas in South Sulawesi has been selected through purposive Sampling. The research suggest: Madrassa teachers have not managed to practice the concept of teaching character. Both conceptually and contextually. The failure of conceptually caused teachers do not embed character values are extracted from the behavior of student's virtue. While the failure of the contextually is has caused teachers failed in an attempt to develop character values, such as social relationships, honesty, and discipline. In addition, the teachers are not managed to practice courteous and not empowered to detain students of behavior lie

Self-Efficacy Belief as a Practical and Parsimonious Evaluation Criterion in School Leadership Training

Training evaluation is often neglected in educational leadership trainings due to many constraints surrounding it. One such constraint is difficulty in identifying and utilizing a parsimonious, result-oriented and psychometrically sound evaluation criterion. This study utilized self-efficacy beliefs as a practical and parsimonious evaluation criterion to explore the effectiveness of the aspiring school leaders’ (ASL) preparatory training in developing their self-efficacy beliefs in school leadership. The study measured the changes in the post-training self-efficacy beliefs of the ASLs as the indicator of training effectiveness. The Principal Self Efficacy Scale (PSES) was used on a sample of 226 ASLs to identify their beliefs in their abilities to accomplish aspects of school leadership. Generally, the findings of the Mc Nemar Bowker Test revealed that the training was not effective in enhancing the self-efficacy beliefs of the ASLs. Further analysis revealed a pattern which indicated those with lower self-efficacy benefited more from the training. This evaluation method utilizing self-efficacy beliefs was found to be useful with respect to theory and practice in other fields and is still largely unexplored and not given due consideration in leadership trainings. This research attempted to fill this void in school leadership especially in the Malaysian context. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n1s1p2

Reasoning skills among students: a meta-analysis

Many countries have undergone a paradigm shift in their approach of teaching, learning and assessment where emphasis is heavily placed on thinking skills. This skill is indeed a vital requirement in developing twenty-first century skills among students as there is a need for high levels of thinking, reasoning and collaborating in today’s era. In the Malaysian context, there is a current need in elevating reasoning skills among high achievers as the Ministry of Education has realized that high achievers have not been performing excellently in global assessments, specifically. Therefore, this conceptual paper aims at identifying the components of reasoning skills that high achievers face difficulties in when learning Mathematics. From the meta-analysis conducted, two major components of reasoning skills were identified; knowledge reasoning and systemic thinking. Based on these findings from literature, these two components can be used as a learning framework to elevate students reasoning skills

Promoting higher order thinking skills through outside classroom strategy in learning mathematics

Mathematics is based on observations of assorted patterns with logically thinking that leads to various theories of abstract relations (Vale, 2012). The thinking process involves the skills of mathematical reasoning and creative thinking (Brodie, 2010). In Malaysia, mathematics education was introduced formally to each student since at early age. Mathematics has train them to think logically and systematically in solving problems and decision makings which can make them better in higher order thinking skills (HOTS). However, the process of learning and teaching in Malaysia secondary schools are still conventional (Bakar & Hadi, 2011; Hamdi et al., 2012). Teachers are prefer to choose traditional methods in order to manage the students easily (Rozita Radhiah & Abdul Rasid, 2012). If these situation are still adopted in Malaysia schools, the HOTS will not expanding as our wish as in the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025 (Malaysia Education Blueprint, 2013). In addition, most of the students think that mathematics is abstract (Pound, 2008). Therefore, according to research by Gainsburg (2008), they are an urgency of connecting mathematics in schools with real life situations. Outside classroom learning is a real learning where the students can involve and discover with their direct experience (Moffett, 2011). One of real life situations learning strategy is learning at outside classroom setting, which focusing on the use of learning techniques of 'hands-on ' and actively participating in the activity to gain knowledge (Waite, 2010). Students must put into practice ‘in the real world’ what they have theorized about. Beside that the learning can become inherently student-centered when moved from the boundaries of the classroom into the world at large. Therefore in this study, the researcher plan to integrate the strategy of learning outside the classroom in Mathematics learning to give students the chances to relate their theoretical into practical in real life situation

Enhancing higher order thinking skills through mathematical thinking in an outside classroom learning environment: a theoretical framework

Emphasis on enhancing students’ higher order thinking skills (HOTS) has been one of the objectives of Malaysian education system. The success of HOTS depends upon an individual’s ability to create complex ideas, reorganize and embellish knowledge in the context of thinking situation. Generating HOTS in learning Mathematics starts from the process itself involving various processes of mathematical thinking. However, the inculcation of HOTS using mathematical thinking in normal Malaysian classroom setting is rather limited and often inadequate. Furthermore, it is much less practised in an outside classroom environment. Therefore, learning activities which can promote the inculcation of mathematical HOTS should be developed and implemented in the process of teaching and learning of mathematics. This paper reports an attempt to design and develop a framework aimed at promoting mathematical HOTS among Malaysian secondary schools. The framework uses appropriate questions and prompts to support each of the four Mason’s mathematical thinking processes practised in an outside classroom environment